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Jesus Christ
According to Jesus, 'it is our sin that separates us from God and we are already condemned for it, but the love of God has allowed Jesus to pay that price and reconcile us to him. We are eternal beings and will spend eternity in one of two places. Jesus said we're all sinners, and are separated from God by our sin, and this makes us already condemned for our wrongdoing. However, the gift of God is the sacrifice of Jesus which reconciles us to God, if we'll trust Jesus to save us. There are only sinners. Just sinners. All sinners. But some have asked Jesus to have them. A Christian is a person that believes Jesus Christ when he says, : ''"'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." - John 3: 16-18 (NIV) http://4laws.com/laws/english/flash/ '''Son of God In the 1st century, the concept of sonship was different than it is today. Today we think of the son as lesser. They didn't then. The son had the authority, the power, and the wealth of the father. When Jesus said he was the Son of God, he equated himself with God. See More... *Jesus Equal to God 'Jesus' Death' Jesus died a physical death which, for him, was just as frightening as it would be for me or you. Still, physical death for God is nothing. But the spiritual death, that's another thing entirely. Jesus had to pay the penalty for our sinfulness, and that involved more than laying in a grave for a few days. 'Why Jesus Died' Simply forgiving transgressions is the opposite of justice. If God is all-forgiving, then God is unjust. A perfectly just God requires the payment for all transgression. But the concept of grace allows for someone else to take on themselves the punishment for someone else's failures. Think of it as if you were in debt, and someone paid your debt for you. The bank doesn't care who pays, so long as their just payment is received. So God is both just and graceful. God cannot be graceful if he allows someone else to pay the penalty for your sin, knowing full well that no one is fit to do so. And so God's perfect love allows him to stand in your place, on your behalf, and pay the price for your wrongdoing. Thus it's God's justice, God's grace, and God's love that combine to provide Jesus as a sacrifice for your sin. 'Immediate Salvation' Jesus says that A) we are condemned already, and B) that whosoever believes in him will not perish. Thus we can move from unsaved to saved! Since Jesus was not dead at this point, either Jesus was a liar, or we all have the ability to be saved. 'Resurrection' The resurrection of Jesus is an historical certainty. Without it, a great number of things cannot be explained. For instance, why did the apostles go from being frightened men unable to admit they even knew Jesus to bold preachers proclaiming his resurrection in just three days? Why did they willingly go to their deaths for the testimony that they saw the risen Christ if they did not believe that was what they saw? Why are there accounts of more than 500 people seeing Jesus at once, but no account of someone saying "This didn't happen?" Why did Christianity spread so rapidly among Jews, if Jesus was not seen as fulfilling Jewish prophecy? The person claiming that Jesus wasn't risen from the dead has a lot of explaining to do, all without the benefit of any supporting evidence. The evidence for the resurrection is so strong that even skeptical scholars agree it happened. People like Elaine Pagels and Gerd Ludemann accept the resurrection as historical fact, even though they do not believe there was anything special about Jesus. Ludemann attributes the resurrection to mass hallucination (something that is just as possible as mass dreaming, which is not possible at all), but the point is made: the fact that Jesus' followers believed that they saw him risen from the dead is certain. 'Fulfilling the Law' The Jewish Law was about how to remain ritually pure, so that Jews could have access to God. Jesus said not one jot or tittle (two tiny punctuation marks) would not pass away of the Law until it was fulfilled. He said he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Fulfill it he did, through his death, burial, and resurrection, giving man access to God without the need to obey Law for ritual purity. The Law is not abolished; it is completed. To underscore this point, the apostles met and discussed the Law in Acts, chapter 15. With many Gentiles becoming followers of Jesus, some Jews thought that they should also have to follow the Jewish Law. The apostle Peter said that the faith of the Gentiles was just as good as that of the Jews. Paul and Barnabas told about how they'd seen Gentile followers of Jesus with faith just as strong and as effective as that of the Jewish followers of Jesus. James, Jesus' brother, said that the Law had been an unkeepable burden on the necks of both them and their ancestors, and that the sacrifice of Jesus was enough. That settled the matter. Jesus teaches us how to love, how to forgive, how to behave, how to care for others, and he teaches us about God and how to relate to him. But he completes the Law. 'Jesus the Last Prophet' Once the message is complete, there's no need to keep sending new (and in the case of Mohammad, contradictory) messages. When you say "goodbye" and hang up the phone, do you keep talking to the person that was on the other end? When the message is complete, there's no need to continue the conversation. Jesus completes the message. 'Shepherd and Sheep' Sheep are largely stupid. They don't remember. They act stupidly. They're easily confused. Yes, humans are a lot like that. A shepherd worries over his sheep, looks out for them, and will risk everything just to find one lost one. We're foolish sheep who will repeatedly make mistakes and do wrong, and Jesus is the loving shepherd that rescues us. 'Related Topics' *Christianity *God *Historical Jesus *Holy Trinity *Jesus Equal to God Category:Dr. Bobisms